1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to text-to-speech (TTS) engines, and in particular, to dynamic alteration of TTS attributes during TTS playback.
2. Description of Related Art
One of the current deficiencies in many text-to-speech products is the inability to dynamically alter various attributes of text-to-speech (TTS) playback, such as pitch and speed, while playback is in progress. However, users need the ability to adjust various parameters of text-to-speech playback such as pitch and speed. Some users need to make these adjustments simply for aesthetic reasons; others for practical reasons. For example, as a user becomes more accustomed to the sound of synthesized speech comprehension typically increases. Consequently, the user may wish the TTS system to read the text faster as time goes by. Most TTS products provide for adjustment of such parameters, but only within special input windows or panels. Most often, these TTS products preclude the ability to make these adjustments while playback is in progress. This deficiency can be a burden when the user is attempting to make compromises between multiple parametric adjustments such as pitch, tone, speed and emotive content. Different combinations will sound better than others to the ear of a particular user, but the search for the best combination is made laborious by the need to continually stop playback, adjust one or more parameters and resume playback. A long-felt need exists for an improved method for adjusting TTS parameters while playback is in progress.